Marcel Goc is out for probably a week or two. Rob Blake is day-to-day and won’t be playing this evening against the Colorado Avalanche.

That was the word minutes ago from Sharks Coach Todd McLellan who seems to be taking these injuries, one after another, in stride.

When Goc got entangled with Dallas defenseman Niklas Grossman midway through the third period Saturday, McLellan said, he reinjured the same lower body part (educated guess: left knee) that caused him to miss 14 games between Feb. 10 and March 10. Goc was playing in his seventh game since returning and his presence had stabilized the Sharks’ third line.

As for Blake, the coach said he still wasn’t sure what happened in the second period that caused the veteran defenseman to leave the ice.

“It’s a lower body thing, a muscle-tissue thing,” McLellan said. “I don’t think he got hit or anything. He was just in his stride and there he went.”

Naturally I’ll try to find out more later from Blake.

As for when he might return, McLellan left it at day-to-day.

“I know he didn’t skate today and he probably won’t skate tomorrow, which is a day off for us,” the coach said. “Then we’ll see how he is Tuesday before we leave.”

The Sharks fly to Chicago on Tuesday with back-to-back games against the Blackhawks and Nashville Predators beginning Wednesday night.

The Sharks recalled rookie Tom Cavanagh from Worcester to fill Goc’s spot in the lineup, and McLellan will use Alexei Semenov on defense to replace Blake.

David Pollak

David Pollak has been following the NHL forever and at the Mercury News as an editor or reporter since 1987. For almost a decade he wrote about the Sharks as the paper's Fan in the Stands before joining the sports department in 2001. He became the Sharks beat writer before the 2007-08 season and began this blog at that time. You can also follow him on Twitter at @PollakOnSharks.

My brother had an interesting question. If a team wins the Cup, do the rookies called up at the time recieve rings as well as those who had been previously called up? Or is it just those on the roster at the time the team won?

Ryan

Is there any way for us to get a time table on Mitchell, JR, Grier, Plihal, and Huskins? With 11 games left, the playoffs aren’t that far away… (By this time last year, Clowe was back, since he played 15 games last year.)

sharkie power

#4
Actually, he came back with 4 regular season games left. On March 30th, to be exact.

MoreCowbell

sharkie power,

“To have one’s name engraved on the Stanley Cup certain requirements must be met. A player must have at least 41 games played with the club or one game played in the Stanley Cup Finals. However, in 1994 a stipulation was added to allow a team to petition the Commissioner for permission to have players’ names put on the Cup if extenuating circumstances prevented them from being available to play.”

Not to speak of the unspeakable, but I say if the Sharks do it all, they petition the commish to have Staubitz’ name put on just for the beatdown of Tootoo.

Scott

Do you think nabby will start back to back?

Sharkalchemy

Important 2 points tonight. Red Wings don’t play but do have a back to back in Canada starting tomorrow. By the time the Sharks have their back to back this week, they could reassert themselves as the one seed with those games.

But they gotta win tonight.

David Pollak

Evgeni Nabokov just led the Sharks onto the ice for the pre-game warm-up. Pretty safe bet he’s playing against Colorado.

David

pelonshark

Any thought about calling up Joslin. Don’t think I can bear watching Semenov play another 3 penalty game again.

CowteekRegion

Thanks for the double update, DP.

Let’s see how tonight goes, eh?

GO SHARKS!

Derek

As for Stanley Cup Rings, the franchise can purchase extra rings to give to all players called up, broadcasters, training staff, owners, etc.

Nick_G

Semenov looks fine tonight. Hairyshark, I wouldn’t worry about his play as much as I would the injuries so far.

EC

JR!!! JR ROCKS with the shaving cream to Seminov during the post game interview. Excellent!

warlock

Does anyone know offhand the percentage on pulling the goalie? My imperfect memory is telling me that I’ve seen a lot more empty-net goals than I have the trailing team successfully tie it. Never mind those times when the leading team simply holds the line and wins.

Evilducks

I wonder if Seme knew who did it at the time. I really miss that character JR in the line up…

Great game by Semenov and a few other young Sharks that won this game for us (along with Nabby of course)

Teejay

No way that Cheech should have got a game misconduct tonight. Two, definitely, maybe four, but that’s it.

Nick_G

#15 – I think the Sharks have 1 or 2 goals this year when pulling the goalie. I would go to guess that they’ve pulled a goalie less than 10 times. Small sampling, but whatev.

Good to see Vlasic shake off that puck to the wrist.

EC

So for those of us w/o center ice, does anyone know where I can see the Wings/Flames tomorrow night on the west side of the valley, Campbell area?

Nick_G

#19 – Rock Bottom tends to have hockey when there aren’t too many other sports on.

Who said the 4th line never gets any more ice than 4-5 minutes a game?

Staubitz – 13:25
Vesce – 12:08
Shelley – 7:42

😀

c_larsen

why were the sharks called for icing and why was the cavs called for interference?

c_larsen

sorry…why wasn’t Colorado called for interference?

Nick_G

#21/22 – Why is the sky blue? Refs blow calls.

Tealspin

The Cheechoo ejection made things even more interesting up front. Vesce and Cavanaugh looked especially good among the non-regulars looking to become regulars. Consistent, steady play out of them.

Staubitz continues to be a mystery. I’m all for another enforcer to step in if Jody’s down but him playing a regular shift on a top three line is scary. The career stats speak for themself: 261 gp, 8 g, 31 a, 39 pts,
-57 rating. Whatever line plays with him is playing man-down from an offensive standpoint. 4th liner, energy guy, banger, goon whatever role you want to call it. That if anywhere is where he belongs. We have other guys in the stable with offensive instincts, playmaking ability and defensive responsibility that should slot into the top 3 ahead of him. Did he beat up Tootoo? Yes. Can he make a play? No. I trust TM will get it right though when second season starts.

Nice win!

sharkie power

I just did some quick math because I’m procrastinating on school work and wanted to figure this out.
The Sharks have lost about 237 man games to injury.

of course that’s excluding Pepe and Huskins because I don’t feel like doing the math to see how many games we’d played when we acquired them.

hockeygal

Staubitz sure got a lot of fan love tonight. I certainly was hoping he would get a hold of LaPierre and give him a left or two.

hockeygal

Hey what’s the deal with the story up on the Merc’s wed page? “The Sharks then lost right wing Jonathan Cheechoo to a game misconduct penalty in the first period for a potentially dangerous hit on Colorado defenseman Lawrence Nycholat.” DP did not write It is from the Merc wire services. Time to clip that wire!

hockeygal

Oops. web page, not wed page.

Tano

The 5 minute PK was awesome! Colorado had no chance to score.

Seme was a force tonight, in his second assist he was flying down the left and made a timely/great pass to Michalek. No silly penalties tonight. Note that I have not called him “cantmovemyfeetov” for quite a while…..

The youngsters from Woosta also delivered. Good effort all around, there were a few scary moments around our own net, but what the heck, it’s part of the game.

The only down note in tonight’s game was allowing Hannan to score. This is his first goal in 85 games….

Ivano

I don’t think very many of us thought the day would come when Semenov will be awarded the 1st star of the night.

In fact, it’s the first time in the rich long history of Russia and its people that Semenov’s ugly face is decorating the front page of the major Russian news portal.

Ivano, do they mention the shaving cream face-wash by JR? And that chia pet glow in the dark beard he’s got is all the rage over here. lol.

Shrkfinatic

Aw, c’mon, the more Semenov plays the better he’ll get. He fills a roll as the 7th defenseman, had a good game tonight and has had several good games. Guess the Semenov blinders are on much like the Wrathjes only saw the bad he did never the good. New whipping boy=Semenov.

Kyle

#34, who’s busting Alexei’s balls here? Seems to be like everyone is happy with him today.

hockeygal

Ivano, spaciba. You were right, he’s all gone.

zprahy

Hockeygal, I wish I’d read all the way down to your comment before clicking on Ivano’s link. I didn’t think I saw Semenov anywhere just looking at pics, but in case I was wrong, I spent a good 10 mins trying to revive my limited Russian-reading abilities looking for Semenov’s name, LOL!